One of the classic genre series,
Kolchak started life as two TV movies (
The Night Stalker /
The Night Strangler) — both of which broke viewing records.
Darren McGavin starred as wise-cracking reporter
Carl Kolchak whose mouth, and stories, always landed him in trouble. The average episode had him investigating a series of murders which would turn out to have a supernatural explanation.
ABC cancelled the show after just one season although, ironically, it would be one of Chris Carter's main inspirations for the biggest show of the 1990s,
The X-Files.
Even more ironically, a mere three years after the demise of
The X-Files,
ABC revived
Kolchak for a new generation in the form of
Night Stalker, starring Stuart Townsend. The series was pulled from the schedules after just six episodes had aired, halfway through a two-part story. All ten episodes produced before the series was cancelled have since been released on DVD in the United States, along with PDF scripts to two unproduced episodes.